Pakistan fury over release of CIA man Raymond Davis Skip to main content

Pakistan fury over release of CIA man Raymond Davis

Jamaat-i-Islami supporters shout slogans as they march toward the US embassy The Jamaat-i-Islami party has been at the forefront of the protests

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Lawyers in Pakistan have staged protests over the decision on Wednesday by a court to release a US CIA contractor accused of two murders.
They say that the families of the two dead men were coerced into accepting financial compensation in return for pardoning Raymond Davis.
Meanwhile a senior official has told the BBC that the "blood money" was paid to the families in Saudi Arabia.
He said it was part of a deal brokered by the Saudi government.
Punjab PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooq said that members of the families of the two men killed by Mr Davis performed a pilgrimage to Mecca earlier this month at the same time as collecting the money and then returning to Pakistan.
The whereabouts of the families is still not known after the Pakistani media reported on Wednesday that they received 200 million rupees ($2.34m, £1.1m).
The PML-N is the main party in the coalition that governs Punjab province. The decision to release him was made during a hearing held at a prison in Lahore, the provincial capital.
Mr Davis, 36, said that he shot dead two men in self-defence in January following what he said was an attempted armed robbery.
The relatives confirmed to the judge overseeing the case that they had received "blood money" in return for pardoning him.
Under Pakistani Sharia law, relatives of a murder victim can pardon the killer.
Muted response There have been further small-scale protests staged by members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parties on Thursday in Karachi and Lahore against the release of the American - who is now reported to be in Afghanistan although there is no independent confirmation that he has left the country.
Rebecca Davis, wife of Raymond Davis Mr Davis's wife Rebecca said that she always knew he would be set free
However the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that it is significant that the country's largest Islamic party - the JUIF - has so far been cautious in its response to the release of Mr Davis.
Our correspondent said their relatively muted response may be because Mr Davis was released under Sharia law.
A JUIF spokesman said they were looking into the case to see if the Punjab government had coerced the families into accepting the deal.
Faizan Haider, a lawyer representing the family of one of those killed, told the BBC on Wednesday that the "blood money" deal was done without his knowledge and that he was in detention when it was made.
Critics of the deal point out that as recently as four days ago, the relatives said that they wanted justice not compensation.
The deal to release Mr Davis - made by the court sitting in his Lahore jail - ends a long-simmering diplomatic stand-off between Pakistan and the United States which had severely strained relations. It will come as a relief to both governments.
Public anger intensified in the case earlier this year after unnamed US officials said that Mr Davis had been secretly working for the CIA at the time of the killing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12769714
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